’Cats collect first wins sans Martinz

The Custer High School boys basketball team took to the floor for the first time this season without one of its main scoring threats, senior point guard Cody Martinz, and came away with a pair of wins, the most recent one a 70-65 win over Lead-Deadwood on the road last Saturday.

In both of last week’s games, the opposing teams did the predictable—focusing their defensive effort on Chase Glazier and forcing other Wildcats to step up. Against the Golddiggers, Lead-Deadwood had one defender devoted to chasing Glazier around. In the week’s earlier game against Hill City the Rangers took it to an even higher extreme, devoting two defenders to hounding Glazier.

Glazier was sporadic in both games, but other Wildcats did enough to help the team win both games.

“Chase had trouble with it, both mentally and physically,” Custer head coach Larry Luitjens said of the other teams’ defensive strategy. “He had a lot more trouble with it than I thought he would.”

Against Lead-Deadwood, it was Logan Burns who came to the rescue, going from role player to star over the course of the game, pouring in 20 points, includings six three pointers, while also dishing out five assists, collecting five steals and snaring four rebounds.

“He played really, really well,” Luitjens said. “That’s a career for most people.”

Kenneth Myers took over point guard duties and had 19 points and nine assists, while Glazier went for 18, including some big free throws and a basket down the stretch to help put the game away.